Jeff Skilling's been arrogant and too talkative since the beginning of the Enron fiasco (testifying before Congress when everyone else took the 5th). Now he's behind bars, but he still won't go away.
In October, Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison after being convicted on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading, and lying to auditors.
Now he wants a new trial. According to the Associated Press Daniel Petrocelli filed an appeal today with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. He wrote that:
Profound, inherent weaknesses in the government's case not just gaps in its evidentiary proof, but doubts about its basic theories of criminality motivated the government to resort to novel and incorrect legal theories, demand truncated and unfair trial procedures, and use coercive and abusive tactics.
In order to believe that Skilling is innocent of any wrongdoing, you essentially have to buy that former CFO Andy Fastow went deep into the bowels of Enron and cooked the books all by himself -- and no one knew about it. You also have to think that Skilling decided to dump shares of Enron because of his uncertainty surrounding the events of September 11th -- 5 days before it happened. Move over Nostradamus! Free Jeff Skilling! The CIA can use him to predict the next terrorist attack!
There's no question that the Enron Task Force made some pretty boneheaded blunders in its pursuit of justice, and maybe Skilling should and will get a new trial. But he belongs in jail, and hopefully that's where he stays for a long time.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-26-2007 @ 11:29PM
zflynn said...
One of Skilling's complaints (filed on his behalf by his lawyers) is the stiffness of his penalties. This despicable arch criminal should serve his sentence and be glad he's not in some place like China that would give him the penalty he deserves: a bullet in the back of his head. I guess poor Jeff is just bitter he was too stupid not to be as cunning and connected as Lay and fake his own death before sentencing. Tough luck, Jeff, I hope there is a hell because you will surely rot in it with all the other rotten criminals who hide behind corporate logos.
9-09-2007 @ 11:05AM
David said...
White collar crime - 24 years.
Pull a baby from its mother and suction its brain out (late term abort) 0 days - priceless
9-17-2007 @ 11:12AM
Tychon said...
Please check where the greed-performance pressure is rooted: 1963, the world's first energy transition from coal to natural gas and global source of easy money and lazy asses, the root cause of the widespread greed-technology and claim-culture escalating now with the turmoil in the financial markets.
Foreknowledge and prescience economy will always find swifter methods than state-regulation can possibly invent, making the failing jurisdictions a reality-threat for sustainable globalization, responsible development and world stability.
www.Enron.complexxon.org